What started as a fairy-tale of a residential stand left behind for 3 siblings under SOS Children’s Villages care became reality after an intervention for one of the siblings. Manor Fatso (not his real name name) received support to clear outstanding bills for the stand with the local authority, draw a plan and build a core house. The stand lies in the northern suburb of Hatcliff Extension which remained undeveloped for years due to unavailability of resources. The young man and his 2 siblings (female) were admitted in the SOS Children’s Villages in 1995 when he was only 2 years old after the unfortunate passing of their mother. The children were left with no caregivers as the father had since passed on and there were no known relatives. Manor successfully completed his High school education and enrolled for a sociology Degree Programme with Great Zimbabwe University in 2016. Sadly Manor dropped out of school in 2017 due to the influence of drugs and substance abuse. Efforts to rehabilitate him were unsuccessful as he continued to relapse. Manor resorted to living in the streets in very squalid conditions. His source of livelihood was mainly menial jobs and collecting and selling plastic waste for recycling. He was exited from care in 2021 at the age of 25yrs.
In close liaison with the other siblings who have since left care and are well settled in the community, it was decided to develop the residential stand that was left by their late mother, to provide decent accommodation for Manor. The SOS Children’s Villages youth empowerment programme saw Manor receive some integration support in the form of construction material to build the four roomed house from foundation up to the roof level. A big thank you also goes to the elder sibling, Jessy (not her real name) who took the supervisory role to make sure resources were fully accounted for during construction of the structure. Manor can now breathe a sigh of relief as to where he could possibly put his head come night time given his previous situation. With the support of his siblings Manor underwent rehabilittation and has since recovered.
He now has a decent place to fully recover from the effects of drugs and make a fresh start. Their mother’s dream to leave a innheritance behind for her children has been fulfilled! Availability of more resources would greatly support the vision of SOS Children’s Villages of ensuring that every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security!